It just looks like simple gouging in LA.
Explain to me how you define “gouging”. Please.
Yeah, ignore the reason it is different in California, the added regulations, the special recipes that prevent importing from other state supplies and the major refinery still down from the explosion.
Yeah, must be gouging.
Those refining/gasoline companies just hate California and love the other states.
It could not possible be the differences listed above.
SB54 is requiring them to hire mostly union employees. In practical application this means if you need to pick up a piece of pipe with a crane and need one rigger to wrap a choker around it three show up and you pay two to watch the third do the work.
The state also mandates double time after 8 hours if you are on overtime and double time pay for Saturday and Sunday.
Cal OSHA and Cal EPA cause the refineries to put on an additional departments just to report and coordinate with those state agencies.
In the rest of the nation, most cities and towns un-annex properties an industrial plant purchases so they do not pay city property tax and do not have to deal with city inspectors and permits. (they build to national codes anyway which are much tighter) Kali city tax them to death and consider the inspections an income stream. It took up to five city inspection to install a pipe support in the refinery I just left on top of the refinery's normal inspections.
And this is the tip of the iceberg. Also try having your refinery picked by the green party a couple times a month and get sued by the city and local residence every time a safety flare goes off.